Poison Ivys

Poison Ivys is about an epidemic that needs to be cured. The expectations for students are unrealistic, and no matter how much students accomplish, there is no threshold on what is "good enough". This creates a toxic environment for students everywhere.

Today, I was rejected from Yale, as were many of my classmates. In fact, not a single one of my peers was accepted. Many of us will sit and ponder what exactly it was that we could have done better. Could I have studied more for that APUSH test? Could I have taken the SAT just one more time? But I look at many of the rejected, and the question I find myself asking is not “what could they have done better?”, but rather, “what can these schools do better to select deserving applicants?”. When we apply to colleges, we lose our sense of humanity. We are no longer people, but numbers on a piece of paper. How can you possibly judge a student’s achievements based on a GPA and SAT score?

When I went in for my Yale interview, I wasn’t told to discuss my grades or scores, but instead, who I was as a person and my many achievements that make me stand out. With winning a national science award, a Juilliard vocal and cello training, starring in a professional short film, working for apple, and having a leadership position in almost every club, I had many passions and accomplishments to discuss with my interviewer. In fact, at the end of my interview, she informed me that I was the perfect Yale candidate.

This woman had not seen my scores, nor did she determine my qualifications by placing my numbers on a graph or ranking me numerically. Based on my personality, achievements, and interests, she determined that I was qualified enough for admission. However, this interviewer was not on the board of admissions, or even a professor at the school. She was merely a Yale alumni who had attending my high school, sent to write up a report on each applicant from my school. There have been many rumors that these interviews don’t even have weight on admission, and that they are simply to butter up alumni in hopes of donations.

While I am not upset nor surprised at my Yale admissions decision, I am disappointed in how the college admissions system works, and the pressure that schools and society put on students, all for the purpose of college admissions. I know students that are at the top of their classes, with perfect SAT scores, and pages of achievements and extracurriculars who were rejected from the ivys. Even students who achieve the highest numbers possible, still aren’t good enough.

The truth of the matter is, college acceptances do not properly reflect a student’s achievements throughout high school. It is unfortunate that the highest ranking students, who could not have achieved any more if they tried, are rejected from their dream schools that they deserve admission to.

To everyone out there who was not admitted to the school of their choice: The expectations of these schools are ludicrous, unpredictable, and subjective. Chances are, there is nothing more you could have done and you are achievements are not of any lesser value. Life will go on, and no matter where you end up, every school will have life-changing opportunities at your fingertips.

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